Reviews Film / Bright Burn

Standard Superman is Evil Story

Brightburn. In a subversion of the typical Superman story, Brandon Breyer isn't here to be the Earth's protector. You get the same basic Superman-style origin story: a farm couple try desperately to have a child but are unable to, that is until a spaceship crash lands to Earth and they adopt the little "bundle of joy as their own." In short, take Superman, but strip him of any of his good qualities and keep his alien nature in the forefront. For the most part, it was an average movie. It did deliver on some of the possibilities of an evil Superman such as Brandon doing the absolute worst imaginable with his powers, but the only issue is that there is never that sense that Brandon was conflicted about who he should be. Quite the opposite. His actions start off as more morally questionable, but there isn't an instance where he genuinely makes the effort to be "good." Everything that you can expect to happen in a movie where it's a darker parody of the Superman story happens and it isn't surprising.

Elizabeth Banks and David Denman play Mr. and Mrs. Tori and Kyle Breyer, and for the most part, they do a good job. They successfully make you feel for the parents in how they went from once being a couple desperate to want a child to getting their wish but at a great price, and that the fallout of what their adoptive son is truly like is something they at first try to blow off as mere coincidences but eventually the scope of their dilemma became too much to bear. It is a minimalistic cast. Aside from the main cast, you also have the uncle Noah, his wife who was also a counselor, and Caitlyn, a young girl that Brandon harbors feelings for. They are less developed the one being more unlikable and one note being Noah whose lines nearly consist of one long stream of profanities.

Overall, I can't really say that you should watch it. If you want the whole Evil Superman story, you can read comic books like Irredeemable or DC's Halloween short comic where Superman actually is depicted as evil from the get-go. There are many other works that play the evil Superman arguably better than the film, and oftentimes with less run time.